This was awkward.

Not only did she not remember falling asleep the night before, but she really didn't remember drifting into the center of the enormous bed.

And she definitely didn't remember cozying up to Jamie, her back pressed against his front, one of his arms wrapped around her middle, effectively pinning her body up against his.

About fifty thoughts flew through her head at once as she tried to blink her way back into consciousness again.

Namely, how had she been so casual about falling asleep with a strange man? How was she going to extricate herself from this obviously delicate position? And, how mortified was she going to be that he would certainly find out she wasn't a skinny size two when he woke up and felt the size of her body against his? His arm was firmly pressed against her stomach – her least favorite body part, followed closely by her thighs, her torso, her backside, her upper arms, her chin, and her chest.

This was not good.

Juno held her breath as she tried to inch away from Jamie, but his arm was still pinning her down. She attempted to tug his enormous shirt further down her thighs to keep up a modicum of modesty as she tried to think of another exit strategy. Suddenly, she felt his arm stiffen and his voice, husky with sleep, in her ear.

"Good morning." Jamie said from behind her ear, refusing to release her. "Sleep well?"

"Um." Juno stammered. "Sure. Yeah. Great. You?"

"Going somewhere?" Jamie teased, tugging her back against him another inch or two. Juno's entire body stiffened as a bolt of lightning fired up and down her body at the contact of body against body, and skin and skin. Jamie must have felt her reaction, because he immediately removed his arm from her body and leaned up on an elbow, looking over her shoulder at her. "Juno? Are you alright? I didn't mean to…are you…bloody hell, I'm sorry. I was just having a go."

Juno gave him her cheeriest smile while she tried to figure out what the hell 'having a go' meant. It was either a pick up line or a little teasing among friends – either way, she wasn't with it. "No problem. Just, you know, used to sleeping alone."

Oh great, she thought, giving herself a mental head slap. That was just the most pathetic thing she had ever heard…

Jamie gave a gravelly laugh. "Me too – guess that's why I'm a bed hog. Sorry about that. Did you sleep well though, despite my groping?"

Juno giggled nervously, tugging on the sheet as she turned over to face him and tried not to think about groping of any kind with the hunky stranger laying a few inches away from her.

She carefully covered herself from chin to toes before answering. "You bet." She replied, still with a fake smile plastered over her face.

"You're absolutely…" Jamie wrinkled his forehead as he tried to think of what to say next. "What's the expression? Freaking out right now, aren't you?"

"I'm not freaking out." Juno said defensively.

"You're freaking out."

"I'm not."'

"You are."

"I'm not." Juno said firmly. "I'm just, you know, adjusting to my surroundings. And, you know, waking up in an Arsenal tee shirt. I'm more of a Manchester United fan."

Jamie laughed in earnest at her smart come back. "Very good." He complimented. "I do apologize for the snuggling…I do tend to move quite a bit when I sleep. I didn't snore though, did I?" He asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

"Not that I could hear." Juno agreed. "Then again, you could have been starting up a lawnmower on the bed and I probably wouldn't have noticed, I was so tired when I finally got into bed last night."

Ironically, now that Juno was a little more awake and had been unhanded by the sexy Scots who was watching her with keen interest, she actually trusted Jamie more. There was something inherently trusting in falling asleep with someone, and waking up with them again.

"You want to have first crack at the bathroom?" Jamie asked sleepily, yawning widely and blinking his eyes a few times.

She was not that trusting.

To use the bathroom first would involve Jamie seeing her bare legs. Her bare, overweight legs. Her pale, bare, overweight legs. Her answer came quickly and without much thought. "You go ahead. Really."

Jamie shrugged at her enthusiastic and affirmative nod, and then climbed from the bed. Juno couldn’t help but admire his back muscles through his thin tee shirt, and then there was the matter of his long legs…

Stop looking, she commanded herself. The stranger is not an object to be ogled. He is a stranger who is merely giving you a car lift to dog town. Focus on the crisis at hand, and not the way his backside looks in those shorts…

Juno leapt from the bed the moment the door closed and wriggled back into her jeans and shirt, and tried in vain to tidy her rat's nest of hair before Jamie reemerged. A few minutes later, she had her turn in the bathroom, and came back out to see Jamie looking at a small scrap of paper in his hand.

"What's this?" He asked, holding out the paper for her to see. Juno took a quick look at it, and realized it was the receipt she had taken from the pub's table last night. She'd also hastily scribbled the motel cost as well as a rough estimate of gas mileage on the back.

"My tally sheet." She said defensively, snatching the paper from his hand. "I'm keeping track."

"Track of what?" Jamie asked, still looking at her with a mixture of puzzlement and amusement.

"Track of how much I owe you for saving my ass from starving to death, and/or freezing to death, if you must know." Juno said, crossing her arms across her chest and lifting her chin to look at him defiantly. "I'm no beggar, and I'm going to pay you back every cent, I swear it."

Jamie tried to hide a smile. "Oh?"

"Yes." Juno shot back. "You think I'm just going to freeload then just disappear back to America?"

Jamie shrugged. "I thought maybe I could get paid back another way." He fired back, trying very hard not to smile as he teased her with a raised eyebrow.

"How's that?"

"Sexual favors?" He tried to say with a straight face, and Juno shot him a look of pure venom that made him burst out laughing. "Or, perhaps not?"

"Let's say not." Juno agreed. "Let's say not a lot."

Jamie continued to grin at her. "Don't worry about a tally, Juno, honestly. Just remember to name that rogue after me."

"Sidekick."

"Whatever." Jamie conceded. "Speaking of a tally, let's go run up another bill for some breakfast, yeah? I'm absolutely starving."

Juno nodded her agreement and bent to tie her running shoes. "I'm going to pay you back, Jamie." She said quietly to herself.

"And I said don't worry about it." Jamie whispered in her ear, ruffling her hair and making her skin tingle from head to toe.

He really needed to stop doing that.

1224 / 10074 / 50000

before . after